The usual alternatives to the air/raft are helicopters or tiltrotors, which probably end up costing almost as much as the air/raft, if not more.

A quarter of a million schmuckers is a cool bit of cash, even for Travellers.

But put wings on a car, add some lifting engines, and how much will it cost?

The basic cost of a car is six and a half kiloschmuckers, but if adding wings and an upgraded motor can be kept in the tens of thousands, this sounds very attractive to users who don\t have out of this world ambitions.

"At Garrison, we take pride in building relationships and trust with each and every one of our clients. That’s why, this year, it was crucial that we offer our clients a true bespoke suit. We created the bullet-proof suit to keep our clients safe during their travels to dangerous places for work. We wanted to create a lightweight garment that not only looks professional, but can also act as reliable body armor. The idea was to create a stylish and discreet alternative to wearing a bulky bullet proof vest underneath a suit. This way, our clients wouldn’t have to worry about looking awkward during meetings, and they can travel to work feeling comfortable, safe, and confident. It’s safe to say, we are able to make what our competitors can’t — a true custom bullet proof bespoke suit."

At five and six, between ownership of a single barrel break open shotgun and semi automatic civilized variants of assault rifles.

So, recent events weren't a surprise, but now I interpret these law levels as a prohibition to automation of the action.

That means break open, revolver, pump, lever, and bolt action are only permitted, with no added mechanism or bypasses to automate these processes, beyond double action for revolvers.

Cheer up, championship level practitioners have a rate of fire of thirty eight rounds per minute on a Lee Enfield with a pretty good accuracy plus reloading. The Germans thought they were facing machine guns.

CLWS produces a line of pistols and pistol-caliber carbines. Calico firearms feature a top-mounted, helical-feed, 50- or 100-round magazine that ejects spent shells from a port in the bottom, making a brass catcher practical in various situations. The Calico 9 mm pistols, carbines and submachine guns use the roller-delayed blowback principle used in the Heckler & Koch series of firearms.[1][2]
At the 2012 SHOT Show, Calico exhibited a prototype 12 gauge shotgun with top-mounted helical magazine.

Speaking of which, merchant ships optimized for a fast turnaround, don't really want passengers out of it for ten days, so instead by cutting the drug by six, it should be divided by seven, which is slightly less than eight days, thirteen and three quarters hours. That would be a sufficient duration to put them under just before launch, accelerate to the jump off point, and come out of it slightly after exiting, which makes the passengers mobile enough to disembark under their own steam.

Speaking of which, merchant ships optimized for a fast turnaround, don't really want passengers out of it for ten days, so instead by cutting the drug by six, it should be divided by seven, which is slightly less than eight days, thirteen and three quarters hours. That would be a sufficient duration to put them under just before launch, accelerate to the jump off point, and come out of it slightly after exiting, which makes the passengers mobile enough to disembark under their own steam.

This is actually a good idea. Undoubtedly there would be different doses of the various drugs.

Given the useful properties of Fast Drug, why would anyone use low berths? Just pack passengers into a barracks space packed with inviting looking recliner chairs, and dose them as they sit down. (Given that Fast Drug slows metabolism 30 to one, but doesn't stop it, they'd probably benefit from putting on diapers before proceeding to the seats.)

Also, it's possible that Fast Drug either works or fails. If it works, a human is out 30-ish days; if not, they're just groggy for a few hours.

But in that case, it's not that difficult to stack up the Fast Drug passengers in their bunker recliners and walk through with a jet injector (presumably one that doesn't have the backsplash problems of some real-world versions) of Fast Antidote. Or, before giving the Fast Drug, a passenger takes a pill of Fast Antidote, with a coating engineered to release the antidote after the desired number of days.

If you really like needles, then maybe this isn't for you. But if you'd like an alternative to the jab for vaccination, take a look at the results from the Phase I clinical trial of the microneedle patch version of the flu vaccine just published in the Lancet.

This is good news for trypanophobes. Here's a video showing how the microneedle patch vaccine works:

Sticking a patch with an array of small needles on your skin for a designated period of time will then allow the vaccine to seep into your body through your skin, where it proceeds to work just a traditional injectable vaccine would: stimulating your immune system to protect against influenza. Making the flu vaccine less "ouchy" may help young children and anyone with trypanophobia get the vaccine. Trypanophobia is the fear of needles, which is slightly different from aichmophobia, the fear of sharp or pointed objects.

Mark R. Prausnitz, Ph.D. of Georgia Tech University led the team that designed the microneedle patch used in the Phase I clinical trial. For the trial, a team from Georgia Tech and Emory University enrolled 100 participants and randomly assigned them to receive the patch vaccine from a healthcare worker, give the patch vaccine to themselves, get the traditional flu vaccine injected into the muscle of their arm by a healthcare worker or receive a patch that's a placebo (i.e., does nothing but stick on you). The trial found no serious side effects aside from temporary pain or tenderness from the intramuscular injection or temporary tenderness, skin redness or itching from the microneedle patch. The microneedle patch seemed to generate an antibody reaction similar to that of the intramuscular injection, suggesting that the patch may be as effective as the injection in stimulating your immune system to protect against the flu.

Of course, this is just a Phase I trial, which is designed to determine whether the patch is safe in humans. A larger Phase II or III trial will be necessary to further determine if the microneedle patch is as effective as the intramuscular flu vaccine and ready to move toward the market. But these results are promising.

The microneedle patch could bring a number of other advantages beyond just allaying the fears of trypanophobes. Without a big needle involved, in the future, you may be able to give yourself the flu vaccine rather than need to go to the doctor's office or have a healthcare worker around. Having people self-administer vaccines could end up saving money and increasing vaccination rates, as detailed in our modeling study published in Vaccine.